The last time we played with the Nokia PureView 808 was at MWC, where I came away very impressed with the device and what I saw in terms of image quality from the camera. For those unfamiliar with the PureView 808, the smartphone packs a huge 1/1.2" 41 MP CMOS sensor and runs Symbian Belle. While I'm still waiting on our PureView 808 review unit (and look forward to talking about its optical system), Nokia today has answered a lingering question about availability for customers in the US. The PureView 808 will be available through Amazon.com at some point in the future (no exact date was given) for $699 unlocked.

Potential PureView 808 shoppers can sign up to be notified when the Amazon preorder page is live on the PureView 808 page. The PureView 808 includes the proper UMTS bands for AT&T HSPA+, however it lacks AWS for T-Mobile HSPA+ and will instead work on GSM/EDGE for those subscribers.Update: The Nokia Conversations blog and PureView 808 specs page incorrectly ommitted AWS support, when the device does in fact support AWS and will work on T-Mobile HSPA+.

In what way makes you think this camera-phone on a dead platform can even come close to a DSLR? I don't see any removal lens on that phones.

megapixels does not mean DSLR or quality.Sensors does not mean DSLR or quality.

Its still a tiny lens on a camera with a big sensor. Its not really 41mp... and its very much OVER-KILL for most people.

I have a rather nice little Canon 16MP camera that I use for fun. its small, portable - I use 8MP mode because its more than enough. I have bigger camera, including a nikon DSLR DX1 which is 6MP and with its lens and sensor, it'll still take a better picture.Reply

Your Canon (which I assume is an A-series) has a f/2.8 lens (at wide angle). The 808 lens is f/2.4, meaning it collects more light relative to its sensor size than your camera. Do the math, and it collects 5x the light. It'll blow your camera out of the water at ISO 400 or higher.

Even at 3x digital zoom, it'll collect more light than your Canon at f/4 with 3x optical zoom. Only beyond that does it start having an advantage.

Look at juhatus' link below. It matches the quality of a Four-Thirds DSLR. That's pretty impressive for a camera phone.Reply

The Pureview technology (very high resolution camera with the hardware to process it) has been in development for five years and wasn't suitable for the current Windows platform due to restriction on the processing hardware. So they were faced with either binning the Symbian project entirely and keep it quiet until they were able to release a Windows version (at least another year) or while working on the Windows version, announce the Symbian one anyway and release the phone as a technology demonstrator. Given the widespread coverage and discussion there has been on the Symbian phone most of which is positive, I think they were quite right to go ahead and release it anyway particularly amonst generally negative Nokia headlines.